Maokai

Maokai was once a gentle presence. Before the Shadow Isles collapsed, he was a nature spirit who asked only to stay rooted where he stood, free of the fury that now shapes nearly everything he does. Whatever tenderness he had left did not outlast the change either. A magical catastrophe brought that peaceful existence to an end, and it was only the Waters of Life seeping into his heartwood that stopped him from dying with it. He endured, but not as the being he had been.

In his place rose a massive treant locked in permanent conflict with the transformed land around him. Bramble Smash and Sapling Toss let him shape the ground and punish enemies who hide in the brush for too long. Twisted Advance carries him forward untargetable before pinning his victim in place, and Nature’s Grasp, his ultimate, hurls a huge wall of thorns across the field that few can outpace. His passive, Sap Magic, restores his health through basic attacks whenever a nearby spell lands, which suits a creature whose second life has been spent wrestling back what undeath keeps trying to seize. Whether he is top lane or support, he takes up whichever position the fight most needs walled off. Returning the Shadow Isles to something resembling its former splendor is his true aim; for the time being, standing against monsters such as Hecarim occupies most of his days.

Maokai makes no attempt to dress any of this up as tranquil. He judges his progress not by stretches of quiet but by how little of the Black Mist’s hold survives each battle, one warped root at a time. The work is slow and grinding, and he has accepted that pace. Other Shadow Isles drifters such as Gwen came out of the same catastrophe in even stranger forms, yet few share Maokai’s exact blend of sorrow and unyielding duty.